hunter-pets
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Breakfast Topic: Should Blizzard support Hunter pet diversity?
While looking over the new "fake" pet skills page at Petopia earlier today, one of the biggest things that struck me is that the whole Thorns skill that the temporary Crab pets get for the lowbie Hunter taming quests would be a great thing for normal Crab pets to get. Right now, They're stuck learning nothing but Claw, placing them right near the bottom of the pet pantheon - very close to Sporebats, who can't learn any special abilities at all. My two high level Hunters tamed a Carrion Bird and a Boar, respectively, so I'm lucky enough to have a good selection of skills to use, but I think there should be more options for people who love their offbeat pets like Sporebats or Hyenas or Crocs. They can even use some of the old rumored alpha skills for pets that popped up around the time of Burning Crusade's alpha. I'm hoping that Blizzard shows more types of Hunter pets some love in WoTLK with a wide selection of new skills, be it thorny shells for Crabs, a Cannibalism-type skills for Raptors, or anything else that lets us see Hunters fighting alongside fewer Cats and Ravagers (or in the case of arenas, Scorpids). What do you think? Should Blizzard focus a bit more on a wider variety of options for Hunter pets? Or should Hunters just take what they can get and be grateful for it? If the former, what types of new pet skills would you like to see?
Popular hunter pet site Petopia gets a facelift, new informational pages
Here's a nice little bit of news for all leveling Hunters, people looking into starting a hunter alt, or people looking to switch out or tweak out their current pet: the popular depository of all things Hunter pet related in WoW, Petopia, has gotten a facelift and a few handy new reference pages. The quick links and references seem to be a lot more streamlined now, and it should be even easier to find information. Some pages are still making the transition, and some of the pet pictures have not been updated to the new color scheme, but Mania assures us she is working on that. In the meantime, she's also added a few new pages to the library, namely the Retired Pet page and the "Fake" Pet Skills page. The former deals with formerly tamable pets that can no longer be tamed, while the latter deals with pet skills that are present during the newbie hunter taming quests, but not on any permanently tamed pet. I rather like both of the new pages. Not only should the information be helpful (if sad) to any newbie wondering where they can get that awesome ghost wolf, but the pages were a nice walk down memory lane for this old hunter. I remember when I made first Tauren Hunter, I was always disappointed that Swoop wasn't an actual bird pet skill, and I was considering a pet crab for my Dwarf Hunter at one point, and would have loved to have a thorny pet to add a bit more damage and threat power for tanking. Crabs could probably use some love anyway, as they seem to be competing with the likes of Sporebats and Bears for most neglected pet family. But anyway, if you're a Hunter, and you haven't checked out Petopia in a while, it's worth a look, there's some pretty cool stuff going on over there.
Ghost Wolf graphic goodness
When Patch 2.3 hit and Dustwallow Marsh got a make-over, Hunters were delighted to learn that the Ghost Wolves in that area were tamable. This was not Blizzard's intention, but they saw nothing wrong with letting it happen. Many Hunter's flocked to the Marsh to get one of the coolest looking pets in the game. And now we learn, they look even cooler in combat. And hotter. And greener. Mania's Arcania reports that the Ghost Wolf pet turns different colors while under different combat effects. In addition to the ones in the picture, the pet can also turn purple while under a Curse. My guess is this is an unintentional side effect of the animal not having a solid texture skin over the 3-D model frame. All pets probably turn different colors while under various effects as part of the particle effects, but the solid skin over the model prevents us from seeing it like we do on the Ghost Wolf.If Blizzard is really on the ball, they will create other semi-transparent mobs, pets and maybe a temporary shapeshifted form for players that takes advantage of this. They already do it with the Spectral Tiger Mount and the Shadow Priest form, why not on other models that would be affected by colorizing of buffs/debuffs? How fun would that be?EDIT: Added in examples of current in-game semi-transparent models.
WoW Moviewatch: Taming the elusive ghost wolf
If you've been drooling over the new, extremely difficult to tame pet, the Grimtotem Spirit Guide (or ghost wolf), then check out this video of Enaress taming one. In order to increase the casting speed of his taming spell, Enaress had the help of a shaman's bloodlust spell, a priest's mind control, and a [Mystical Skyfire Diamond].If you're thinking of going after one yourself, check out our summary of what you will need, or head over to Mania's Arcania for the full scoop.
Upcoming Hunter changes
Hunters received a lot of changes in patch 2.3 and now Salthem on the european WoW forums has announced even more. Patch 2.3.2 will bring three buffs to the class, or two buffs and one un-nerf, depending on how you look at it. Check out the list of changes below.
Breakfast topic: Rarest hunter pets
Sometimes it seems that in our rush to be different, we end up just like everyone else. You can see this every day at your local Hot Topic. In WoW, I tend to notice this in hunter pet choice. Some days it feels like every single hunter has a lynx from the Blood Elf starting area, or Humar the Pridelord, or a nifty-colored Warp Chaser. Where's the individuality? So I've decided to ask the community what the rarest hunter pet model is out there. All the skins are available here on Petopia, if you need a visual reminder. Hordeside, at least, I see a surprisingly small amount of tigers being leveled to 70. It's such a beautiful model, and so simple to obtain -- I'm shocked there aren't more out there. The plague-stricken animals, such as bears and boars, are also underrepresented -- maybe only Undead hunters would want undead pets? In general, there aren't a ton of spiders, serpents, crabs and birds out there, except for lowbies with owls. But looking at the Petopia page, there are only two models that I've never seen a hunter with. The white carrion bird model can be found at the named mob Trachela in the Bone Wastes, and the pure white gorilla is only seen on a rare mob in Un'goro. What do you think is the rarest hunter pet out there? Hunters, would you rather have an uncommon pet, or do you prefer the cats and wolves?
New hunter pets coming with Patch 2.3
There is a lot of exciting new content coming to us via Patch 2.3, and with said content comes new mobs, new monsters, and now we hear tell of new hunter pets. The one I'm most excited about is the level 70 elite Amani Bear in Zul'Aman that has the same model as the bear mount, or at least looks pretty darn close. People are already leading this awesome beast around the PTR, and we can expect plenty of them to roam Outland and Azeroth when the patch finally arrives since now we finally have a level 70 bear to tame. Zul'Aman also offers a couple tamable level 70 non-elite pets, including a couple lynxes and a crocolisk. For those of us with hunters that aren't quite up to max level as of yet -- and I include myself here -- there is good news in store as well. There are several new pets available in Dustwallow Marsh, namely the Noxious breed of windserpents. With a level range of between 35 and 39, these would make great pets for those preferring the melee hunter role (there are more than one of these out there, right?)I am sorry to tell you that there have been a couple untamable models added to the game, including an Orange Dragonhawk and a lovely brown Amani Eagle. Let's hope that Blizzard changes their mind about that bird in the future, because I know of a couple of people that would love to have one. For a complete list of the new Patch 2.3 pets, check out the Mania's Arcania page here.[via Mania's Arcania]
Adventures in Azeroth: Collecting unique pets
Welcome to another episode of Adventures in Azeroth, where I document my misadventures as a new Hunter on a new server. (Want to check up on my progress? You're welcome to join me and a whole group of readers in the It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh!) But this week I'm not really talking about playing (I haven't leveled much since the last episode of Adventures in Azeroth) -- instead, I'm talking about the crazy lure of hard to find Hunter pets, and my new-found pokemon-esque desire to catch-em-all.However, practical concerns have limited my collecting. After all, one pet is quite enough work to keep leveled on its own -- much less if I had a pair. But, after noticing that every last Blood Elf hunter with an Eversong Woods cat identical to my pet Mittens, I decided I had to do something about it. I didn't want to be just-another-Blood-Elf-Hunter -- I wanted to be... well... unique! So I went searching for a new pet, one that every run-of-the-mill Hunter wouldn't have.
